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Experiential Boundaries
The Centrality of Spectatorship
It is important to consistently relate how the six haunting domains affect the experience of the spectator, as the project discusses the ways that sound can provide a haunting experience in the gallery.
Each of the fields of haunting can be explored in sound, however, they each haunt a different quality of experience. The six fields of haunting provide an efficient framework for investigating the ways that sound installations can challenge the white cube, and it is through the haunting of the boundaries of our experience that will reflect how the spectator can engage with art in a more meaningful way.
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While I had been advised that the dialogue of boundaries was unnecessary and over-complicating the argument, I wanted to emphasise its importance t. the research project. The purpose is to succinctly summarise the argument of each chapter in a single word. The argument of the thesis as a whole is that through these haunting experiences of sound, we can uncover the ways that the space affects our experience and conclusion will summarise that it is through these six boundaries, that the spectator is affected by the haunted site.
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For easier digestibility, each boundary begins with the letter P, so that these six crucial points can be more memorable.
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The Boundaries of Periphery
1. A Silent Haunting of Time
Silent haunting is where an attention to absence affects the temporal experience. Aural Silent haunting is explored through attitudes of the timeless, in silent documentation and sonic scars. The ‘White Cube’ is a visually centred institution and so artworks that do not have visual information challenge the isolated experience of visual art.
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The periphery is the limits of sensory perception, the peripheral content of visual art for example is the context it is placed within.
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- The visual periphery: the surrounding architecture, haunts the visual periphery, especially when the container overpowers the content (Sheikh, 2009).
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- The unforgiving architectural acoustics and the privatisation of the listening experience haunts the expected silence in the ‘White Cube’ and therefore the sonic periphery.
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- The temporal boundaries of periphery are haunted through a desire to experienced time-based works after they have ended.
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- Senses that are subdued to periphery, such as touch and smell in a visual context also haunt our peripheral boundaries when they are unexpectedly excited.
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The Boundaries of Poise
2. An Incongruous Haunting of Time
Incongruous haunting is where an attention to the temporal experience affects the relative experience of a place. Aural Incongruous haunting is when the sound’s immanent effect on the listener is unpredictable, perceived through feelings of dread or a fear of the unknown. The ‘White Cube’ alters our experience of time, therefore attention to time itself haunts the ideologies of the institution.
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Poise is the experiential boundary of sensory comfort, specifically a comfort in the uniformity of its surrounding structures.
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- The temporal boundaries of poise are haunted when the spectator's experience of time is manipulated. For example when we are in a room with no windows, the expectation of witnessing the effects of time is haunted.
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- The foundations on which we construct our own boundaries of poise is constructed by the institutions we engage with, therefore when these spaces are challenged, our poise is haunted by its fragility.
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- We also construct our foundations of poise on our identity, when we enter a space, institution, or setting which challenges our identity, such as by encouraging a self-awareness, we can become haunted by ourselves. such as the presence of our own shadow, or sound of our own voice.
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- Our poise can be haunted aurally by subverting expected interactions with sound. It can also be characterised by a fear of the unknown, or dread.
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3. A Acousmatic Haunting of Place
The Boundaries of Proximity
Acousmatic haunting is where something is experienced as decontextualised from its causal context. This is reflected sonically where sound is heard from a place in which its source cannot be located. It is the feeling that something is present beyond that which we have the sensory equipment to perceive.
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Proximity is the perceptual boundary of nearness, an acousmatic experience haunts the boundary of nearness by displacing the sensory effects of a source.
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- The aural proximity is haunted in two ways:
- 1st is when the source of the sound is projected, (explored in my practical research using a parametric speaker)
- 2nd is when the sound resonates with a space greater than the spectator, (explored in my practical research using a subwoofer speaker)
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- The boundaries of visual proximity can similarly be haunted, devices such as lasers or over-head projectors, project visual information or 'sources' onto a displaced context. (though this is far more common in our culture and so it does not haunt to the same extent)
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- The spatial boundaries of proximity are haunted through a social and tactile encounter with the beam of projection that is defined in the space.
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The Boundaries of Presence
4. A Modulated Haunting of Place
Modulated haunting is where our experience is influenced by our surrounding context. The effects of context are natural, such as feeling more tired at night or hearing voices echo under a bridge. However, these aspects haunt our experience when they are misaligned such as the use of bright lights in places like casinos, to remove the effects of time to make visitors stay longer. It is when the environment affects the experience within.
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Presence is the experience of place, a place will have specific effects on the spectator within and when these are subverted, either ideologically or perceptually, the result is a haunting experience.
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- Aural presence haunts the experience of the 'White Cube' as despite its unwelcomeness in the space, the characteristics of the architecture and the space's acoustics amplify the sounds produced in the space.
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- Modulated haunting affects the spatial boundary of presence. As sound is modulated in the space it is installed into, hearing expected sounds of the space that sound as if installed in another environment can haunt our spatial experience and our own faculty of hearing.
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- The physical boundaries of presence are haunted in an ideological preference for virtual engagement.
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- Visual presence haunts the social experience of other spectators, just as the visual presence of others haunts the personal experience.
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The Boundaries of Psyche
5. A Psychogenic Haunting of Relativity
In his book, Sonic Warfare (2016), Goodman associates with sound a relational dimension of mood modulation which he calls the affective tonality of sound. There is an imbalance of relativity, that is reflected in the personal experience of the individual. Psychogenic haunting is the meaningful effect of the environment and time on the boundaries of our psyche, our memory and our personal experience.
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The psyche is the subjective experience, each spectator is an individual who comes to social situations such as art galleries for unique personal experiences.
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- The visual psyche is haunted through iconographic memories. Visual art has the power to create meaningful and thought provoking structures. It is in the engagement with such artworks that audiences create subjective associations with a place. when these 'places' are then changed, they are still affected by a memory of the space.
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- The aural psyche is haunted by repetition. It is through echoes that we become acutely aware of sonic patterns and associate meaning with them that haunt when they are altered by time, modulated environmental acoustics etc. The sound of ones own voice can haunt as it is a sound of associated meaning that can be shaped by the environment it is projected into.
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- giving aural experiences, meaning through a perceived presence haunts the boundary of the psyche as it subverts our experience with sounds.
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The Boundaries of Passivity
6. A Responsive Haunting of Relativity
The word ‘Kinaesthesia’ describes the sensory facility that makes it possible to experience the position and movement of the body (Smith, 2014). We have an innate awareness of how we and others navigate places, that is reflected in the performance of navigating social spaces. Responsive haunting is the attention to how social experience affects the boundaries of passivity.
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- Aural passivity in contributing to the soundscape
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- Present audiences cannot be passive, their body heat, visual presence, aural presence, dust they bring with them, shadows, navigation etc all actively contribute to the space haunting the social experience.
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- The engagement of audiences, even with interractive works, haunts the aesthetic's values.
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- The social dimension, both in its passivity and activity haunts the relative experience of art.
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- The decision to attend a gallery reflects an active action and an active intention, therefore the audience cannot be labelled passive and the ideological expectation of the institution haunts the experience.
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